‘Race for affordability': The Sydney suburbs where rents jumped most
Rents did fall in several suburbs, and the deepest drops for houses included some premium pockets. But these are areas which remain unreachable for many tenants looking for cost-effective housing and suburbs getting cheaper were in the minority.
In some suburbs, house and unit rents recorded a double-digit surge in the 12 months to June. This included spots in the east and the south-west, Domain's latest Rent Report, published on Thursday, revealed.
'I think what we've got is a bit of affordability play now emerging, and we do have unit rents outperforming house rents … I think that is the race for affordability, and those affordable pockets in Sydney are slowly dwindling,' said Domain's chief of research and economics Dr Nicola Powell.
Across the city, median asking rents hit fresh highs in the year to June, to $780 a week for houses and $740 a week for units.
Powell said Sydney was still in a 'landlord's market,' even as the rental vacancy rate nudged a five-month high of 1.1 per cent. A balanced market is about 3 per cent.
'The rent pain is still there, but what we have got is, it's moving away from a hot rental market, and that rental growth is now slowing,' she said.
House asking rents rose most in Clovelly, in the east, up 41.3 per cent in the year to June to a median $2225 a week, followed by Collaroy, on the northern beaches, up 38.5 per cent to $1800, and North Turramurra on the upper north shore rising 30.4 per cent to $1500.
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